A retrospective look at the influx of foreign footballers into the English leagues during the 1970s and 1980s and their lasting influence on the game.

Forty years ago, English football was a world away from today's slick cosmopolitan product--a more parochial beast. But incoming was a shot of 'je ne sais quoi' with the EU-enforced freedom-of-movement, ending English football's fifty years of splendid isolation. So, in 1978, English football was turned upside down as the island state opened its doors to a whole world of footballers, but not everyone rolled out the red carpet. For some it was a foreign game in a foreign land, while some brave Brits headed for the continent. A multicultutal revolution was underway and football would never be the same again.—Anonymous